Chuck
Klosterman has walked into the darkness. As a boy, he related to the cultural
figures who represented goodness, but as an adult, he found himself
unconsciously aligning with their enemies. This was not because he necessarily
liked what they were doing; it was because they were doing it on purpose (and
they were doing it better). They wanted to be evil. And what, exactly, was that
supposed to mean? When we classify someone as a bad person, what are we really
saying (and why are we so obsessed with saying it)? How does the culture of
deliberate malevolence operate?

In I
Wear the Black Hat, Klosterman questions the modern understanding of
villainy. What was so Machiavellian about Machiavelli? Why don’t we see
Bernhard Goetz the same way we see Batman? Who is more worthy of our
vitriol—Bill Clinton or Don Henley? What was O. J. Simpson’s second-worst decision?
And why is Klosterman still haunted by some kid he knew for one week in 1985?

Masterfully
blending cultural analysis with self-interrogation and imaginative
hypotheticals, I Wear the Black Hat delivers perceptive observations on
the complexity of the antihero (seemingly the only kind of hero America still
creates). I Wear the Black Hat is a rare example of serious criticism
that’s instantly accessible and really, really funny. Klosterman continues to
be the only writer doing whatever it is he’s doing.

Download and start listening now!

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Quotes & Awards

“Astute and funny.”

USA Today

“Intellectually vigorous and entertaining.”

Publishers Weekly

“That most of his subjects are from the pop-culture realm,whether Andrew Dice Clay or Chevy Chase or the Eagles, does not diminish the underlying sophistication of Klosterman’s guiding questions…A fine return to form for Klosterman, blending Big Ideas with heavy metal, The Wire, Batman and much more.”

Kirkus Reviews

“Very much a product of his generation and as plugged into the popular culture as Mencken was antagonistic to it, Klosterman is in that same direct line of cultural critics as Bierce, Mencken, and more recently, P. J. O’Rourke, and his posture is similarly arch and iconoclastic…I Wear the Black Hat will amuse and/or outrage but, either way, it should enlarge his audience.”

Booklist

A Los Angeles Times Bestseller

A New York Times Bestseller

A Publishers Weekly Bestseller

Listener Reviews

About the Author

Chuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of seven books, including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, Eating the Dinosaur, and The Visible Man. His debut book, Fargo Rock City, was the winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has written for GQ, Esquire, the New York Times magazine, Spin, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and ESPN, and now writes about sports and pop culture for Grantland.com.

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